But Apple is purging entire backups, not individual files within a backup. Everybody has files older than 6 months, and nobody is claiming that backups will be designed to ignore them.
In your case, if you’re seriously considering making a “one shot” backup and then never update it again, that’s an “archival backup”. You should make that backup off-line (e.g. via iTunes or whatever Catalina’s equivalent is) and archive that using whatever mechanism you use to archive the rest of your computer’s data.
If, on the other hand, you have your phone configured to make periodic backups - even if they are incremental, where very few files are actually changing, then you won’t have a problem. The backup set itself will not be six months old, even if it contains file that are that old.
Nobody ever claimed anything else. Fact of the matter is iOS backups do not contain synced material or apps. It’s all the other material that’s getting purged here, without warning. And that’s inexcusable as @ace rightly points out in his article.
Just to be clear, I’m actually not doing any of that. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating we rarely back up or only backup once. Not at all. The point is that I object to Apple deleting material without alerting users to it.
If you happen to have an old iCloud backup and your iPhone gets run over, that would help you recover on a new iPhone. Even if said backup were 6 months old. But with Apple just deleting such backups without warning, you’ll be left with synced content only. All your settings, your app data (if not on iCloud), and network/security prefs are gone. Should people back up more often? Absolutely. Something that would in fact be encouraged if Apple reminded people that their super old backup is about to be deleted and they should create a new one. But Apple doesn’t do that, they just purge user be damned.
And while I agree with your suggestion that backing up routinely to your Mac rather than to iCloud is sensible (and actually what I do myself), it is by no means advice users get from Apple. In fact, quite the contrary as Apple lately seems to be pushing this narrative that you don’t need a Mac (or any kind of computer) to effectively use an iOS device. And I would claim the fact that they delete iCloud backups without warning is perfect evidence to the contrary.
I agree that iMazing is the best way to go regarding iOS device backups. I wouldn’t use iCloud for anything except app syncing due to insufficient storage.
If iTunes is to be used for backups, its requirement to save to the home drive is quite unacceptable to those of us that have relatively small SSDs. The solution is to change the backup location to an external drive. This can be done using a ‘symlink’ or symbolic link. It is somewhat complicated but only need to be done once. I used this method for many years until iMazing came on the scene. This URL describes how it can be done.
Unfortunately, local backups … must be stored in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ , which is problematic for those with small boot drives
If you have sufficient storage to create the backup on your Mac and if you have external storage (say, a USB drive) with enough space to hold the backup, I wonder if you can do the following: (1) create the backup according to Apple’s procedure; (2) move the folder that the backup creates to your external storage device; (3) create an Alias for the folder on the external device; and finally, (4) move the Alias to ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/. You would then have a backup that takes up no space on your Mac.
As I understand it this policy doesn’t make sense. I am paying for storage let me store what I want in it. Letting me keep 50 backups from my iPhone 3GS if I want it improves revenue for the iCloud.
If Apple only keep one copy online why delete it after 180 days?
If they kept multiple copies then I could see keeping the last n copies and delete all but the most recent backup after some time period.
Here’s the dope I got from a family member who is a former Apple store employee: “It’s referring to strictly “back ups” which is any data not already synced individually through the toggles in your iCloud settings. Additionally you can toggle on the “iCloud backup” to set automatic back ups whenever your device is locked+connected to power+on Wi-Fi.”
“So if you have none of these settings toggled and ONLY manually backup to iCloud every 181 days, you have permission to be alarmed.”
I guess the question is, does the average iPhone/iPad user know that they have those other options?
As a side question, I have an elderly friend I just set up with a new iPhone SE. I wanted to make sure her phone is regularly backed up, but she does not have wifi. (Her iPhone’s cellular connection is her only internet connection.)
While she can go to the library (once they open) to use wifi to backup her phone manually, is there a way to force it to automatically backup if she’s only on cellular? (She has unlimited cellular data plan, so excessive data use isn’t an issue.)
Adam. What you are saying isn’t technically wrong. But it has created an impression amonst many of your readers that FILES in an iCloud backup older than 180 days are deleted. Or that files that haven’t been used in 180 days since they were backed up are being deleted. Which is NOT the case at all.
This is leading people to believe that files on their systems which are older than 180 days are likely to be deleted (in the backup store) and thus not be recoverable. I got to deal with these misconceptions last night in a ZOOM user group meeting as Tedbits emails went out.
Plus to you and the others. Most cloud backup services delete files if they are not seen for more than 30 days. So Apple is extended the grace period to 6 times what most of the industry does. (Last I checked that is.)
People need to learn to read even if it’s more than 140 words. Adam clearly stated it’s related to iCloud backups. Not files, not Mac, not documents, not Finder. There is really no reason for any confusion.
I’ve seen a couple of such confusions, but I thought I was pretty clear in the article.iCloud backups are a specific thing. I never said anything about iCloud Drive files or iCloud Photos or iCloud Music Library or Contacts or Calendars or anything else. Just iCloud backups. There’s a screenshot showing the iCloud Backup interface. There are links to three different Apple support articles that talk about it. There’s a link to a Macworld article about the topic. I use the term “device backups.” The core example is someone who backs up an iPad and then can’t afford to buy a replacement iPad for over 6 months such that he loses his iPad backup.
So I’m sorry people are getting confused, and had I thought it was at all confusing, I would have said something to the effect of, “This applies only to iCloud device backups, as are made via the iCloud Backup options in iOS or via the Finder (in Catalina) or iTunes (in previous versions of macOS). It does not apply to any other data in iCloud. So if you’re worried it does, you can stop worrying.”
On a similar note, I’ve always found it bizarre that Time Machine will notify you after it has deleted old backups to make space for new ones.
I really want to be informed before my computer starts deleting data.
And to add insult to injury you used to be able to get simple and clear indication of which backups were deleted in /var/log/system.log. But no more thanks to the “new and improved” logging that came with Sierra. Now you need a dedicated tool like Consolation to do that.
